Now the work begins, originally uploaded by Grinningskull.

Ice on the rink at Ryerson.

This is what greets me as I head into the first day of the Keystone
Theatre intensive workshop. One week to create something we can
present next Sunday to an invited audience.

A daunting task, but I think we’re up to it.

New space, originally uploaded by Grinningskull.

Into new space for the beginning of our marathon week of workshopping
"The Belle of Winnipeg".

The lesson we learned from presenting a scene at the fundraiser really illustrates the kind of thing we hope to learn through our workshop in less than a week. By putting the work in front of an audience, we’ll learn what’s working and what’s not. Of course, it would also be nice to find some financial backers, but that’s less important than the feedback we’ll get.

This week is going to be really difficult. Working 9 to 5, and then heading right out to rehearsal. This will get me home around midnight each night. When it’s all over, I’ll be ready for the Christmas break.

I’m almost home now, so I’ll post this and collapse into sleep.

Workin’ the bits, originally uploaded by Grinningskull.

Richard Beaune concentrates on a scene.

Tonight working through some scenes bit by bit, getting a feel for the
structure of the scenes. After tonight we’ll be finessing scenes and
working to give them some finish.

By the time we get to Saturday, we want to be running the scenes for
the presentation.

Coming together slowly but surely.

A sheep, originally uploaded by Grinningskull.

It was there. On the coffee maker.

Into to Lower Ossington Theatre tonight. Here till tomorrow, then off
on friday.

Tonight, we’re working a the last couple of scenes. Once that’s done,
we can spend our time tomorrow and Saturday just running through the
scenes in order.

I think it’s coming together.

Siobhan knits, originally uploaded by Grinningskull.

One has to do something when you aren’t on stage. Siobhan Richardson knits.

Very productive night, as we continue the "enchainment", which is the
process of putting all the scenes together for the first time. This
is where you find the traffic problems. We found a few tonight, but
they aren’t insurmountabe.

No rehearsal tomorrow. Instead, the office holiday party.

And then the weekend.

It went pretty well.  Audience reaction was relatively good, and the feedback we got afterwards in our question and answer session will go a long way to helping us put the show together in its final form.

And now, we’re finished for a while.  We’ll come back to it later in the new year, but for the time being, we’re taking a break.  And a well deserved one too, I think. I’m looking forward to having some evenings to myself, and to moving on to some new projects.  I’m also, however, looking forward to eventually coming back to work on Belle.

But for the moment, I’m going to sleep.

Scripts on chairs, waiting for the reading to start.

Last night I read the role of Doctor Nefarious in the first public reading of D.J. Sylvis’ play, THE NEFARIOUS BED AND BREAKFAST.  This was the first public reading of the play, and it was great fun.  Hearing audience reacting to things that work (or don’t work) is always rewarding.

Afterwards, I lead a feedback session on behalf of D.J. (so that he could concentrate on taking notes), and from what i heard, most of the feedback was positive, and there was some really helpful feedback.

All in all, a fun night.

Both of these two performances were fine for me. Monday night I felt somewhat “off”, and last night I felt as though the character was there but that I wasn’t listening as well as I could be but rather going over the lines in my head while they were spoken.

My challenge for tonight is to put the full moon inspired madness of the workday behind me, and allow myself to sit in the character, find the moment and listen.

I’ll let you know how it goes.